Database Reference
In-Depth Information
1.
Introduction to Cassandra
Apache Cassandra is a powerful and massively scalable NoSQL database. It is ar-
chitected to handle real-time big-data workloads across multiple data centers with
no single point of failure. It works on commodity hardware and can easily be de-
ployed in a cloud-based infrastructure. But before we get into the nitty-gritty of
things, here is a quick lesson in Greek mythology.
A Greek Story
In Greek mythology, Cassandra was the beautiful daughter of King Priam and
Queen Hecuba of Troy, the twin sister of Helenus and younger sister to the great
Trojan warrior Hector, and eventually a priestess of Apollo. She was believed to
be the second-most beautiful woman in the world. Her beauty was compared to
the likes of Aphrodite or Helen of Troy. She had red curly hair, blue eyes, and fair
skin and was intelligent, charming, friendly, and very desirable. The other side of
Cassandra was that she was generally considered to be insane.
When Apollo first saw Cassandra, he immediately fell in love with her. To
show his love, he offered her the gift of prophecy if she would kiss him, and she
agreed. But when Apollo went to kiss Cassandra, instead of a kiss, she spat in his
mouth. Because Apollo had already granted Cassandra the gift of prophecy, he
could not take it away. But he did change it so that even though Cassandra would
always know what was going to happen, nobody would ever believe her.
And in fabled fashion, when Cassandra told the people of Troy that the Trojan
Horse was bad news, they ignored her and Troy was captured. After the Trojans
lost the war, a Greek warrior named Ajax took Cassandra prisoner and gave her
to King Agamemnon as a slave. She told Agamemnon that his wife, Clytemnes-
tra, was going to kill him. But Apollo's curse did not allow anyone to believe her.
After killing her husband, King Agamemnon, Clytemnestra then killed Cassandra.
The reason for telling this story is twofold. First, it shows a little about why the
name Cassandra was chosen for this database. She was a repository of knowledge
of things that were going to happen. This is similar to the way you can use the
Cassandra system to help you build a better product by having a keen understand-
ing of what's going on around you. Second, the names of many of the characters in
this and other Greek tragedies are used for the names of many of the applications
